Corpse Party: Darwinism
by Arkadian Mercer
Summary: Seventeen year old Ash and his group of friends; Daisy, Allen, Jason, Daniel and Johnny wind up at the accursed Heavenly Host Elementary School through the diabolical Sachiko Charm ritual. As Ash himself is subjected to the horrors of the alien dimension, he finds himself faced with his own insanity more and more as he realises it's adapt or die.
1. Prologue

"In another moment

down went Alice after it,

never once considering

how in the world

she was to get out

again."

* * *

'So tell me Ash, what does true insanity feel like?'

Ash considered this briefly, before turning back to her.  
'In a word… free.'


	2. Chapter 1

Ash groaned at the sickly feeling of being ripped from sleep and getting dropped back into reality.  
 _What.. just happened..? I was with the others only a few seconds ago, then.. then_ _…_  
He immediately stopped recalling the events which led up to the present moment as a rupture of pain shot through his head, as if his train of thought had just slammed into brick wall. Cursing viciously under his breath, Ash raised his hand to rub his temple. Or at least tried to. As he attempted to move his arm, it was met with a sturdy, cold resistant force keeping his wrist pinned to whatever he was lying on. 'Wha- What the hell?' Ash's eyes shot open, something he regretted immediately as he was met with his surroundings. Blood. Walls, ceiling, floor, dripping out of overflowing buckets, staining rotten corpses piled high right next to the surface he was laying on, hell, it was everywhere! Ash instantly panicked and started rattling on his apparent bonds in a desperate attempt to move. 'Help! Someone! Anyone! Please!' Ash screamed. The juxtaposition of the blurry pane of sleep to the stench of decay and the grizzly sight of mutilation spread around the room like a slaughterhouse hit Ash like a sledgehammer.

'So, you're awake.' A voice muttered, seemingly amused from beside Ash.

Ash's heart stopped beating in his chest for a moment. Slowly, he craned his neck to see a familiar figure leaned against the wall between a stack of mauled corpses and a group of blood filled buckets piled almost as high as the figure. The figure drew its gaze from the floor and locked in on Ash's features, smirking an unnaturally wide grin. Ash's pupils shrunk to pinpricks, his face paled. 'A-Allen?'

'Aw man, you have no fuckin' clue how much people would pay to see the look you just gave me, that shit was priceless, man, fuckin' priceless!' Allen snickered and shook his head as if trying to shake off the humour he was experiencing.

Ash stared. 'What are you talking about? Is this supposed to be some sort of messed up prank?!'

This only caused Allen to laugh even more. 'Ash, hermano.' Allen breathed while still cracking up to such a level it was starting to become creepy. 'You- you really crack me up sometimes you know that?'

'All-' Ash started, but his tone immediately silenced Allen's splitting sides.

Allen shoved himself off the wall and kicked the pile of blood buckets he was standing next to to the ground, their contents spilling out and flowing like a crimson sea around the concrete floor, before coming right up to the elevated surface Ash was laying on and slamming on it with his fist. The entire thing rattled as if it was struck with a battering ram. 'Christ sake Ash! I fuckin' give you my goddamn hospitality and this is the kinda shit you're going to give me in return? Is that what you fuckin' think?' Allen leaned over Ash and started screaming in his face.

'Hey, whoa, calm down! I didn't-'

'Look, it's all right.' Allen drew away from Ash and strode out of his peripheral vision. Ash strained his neck to see where he went but couldn't move very much at all. 'I'm going to chill, hermano, it's all cool now.' Allen returned to Ash's side, holding something distinctively large, mechanical and throughly blood stained in his hands.

Ash recognised it instantly. A chainsaw. 'Allen! What the hell are you doing!?' This was escalating all too quickly for him.

'Shut the fuck up and let me focus will ya? I haven't used one that's been modified so many fuckin' times you know what I'm saying?' Allen examined and fiddled around with the device before locating a rusty startup cord. 'There's the slimly motherfucker.' Allen said under his breath before ripping at the cord. The chainsaw roared to life. Razor sharp carbide teeth whirred around a rusted up guide bar.

'Allen! Wait! No! Come on, man! I'll do anything! Just stop! Think about this!' Ash violently started throwing himself about in his bonds. That's when it hit him. He was on an operating table.

'It'll all be over fairly quickly, hermano.' Allen called over the screech of the chainsaw. 'Just try not to squirm like a little bitch and it won't hurt too bad, all right?'

Ash would've supposed he'd been screaming like hell for Allen to stop, praying for his life or accepting the end. But no, the only thought flowing through his mind was..

 _How did I end up here..?_


	3. Chapter 2

"But I don't want to go among _mad_ people," Alice remarked.  
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all _mad_ here. _I'm mad. You're mad_."  
"How do you know _I'm_ mad?" said Alice.  
"You must be," said the Cat, " _or you wouldn't have come here_."

* * *

Ash was just about to give up hope and wait for the end, the death whirl of the chainsaw was hanging just above his torso, he could even feel the slight breeze the carbide teeth was kicking up pull across his shirt. That was when the door burst open.

'TYRANNOSAURUS! TYRANNOSAURUS!' A figure wearing a torn up school uniform screeched at Allen.

Allen's sigh was barely audible over the grind of the chainsaw, he tugged at the rusted cord again and tossed it aside, it hit the floor with a rattling clang loud enough for Ash to flinch.

'TYRANNOSAURUS!' The figure screeched at him again, Ash just managed to make the figure out as a roughed up school girl, her pupils were unnervingly small. Was it the distance he was looking at her from?

'Ah for FUCK'S SAKE!' Allen screamed, the girl whined and withdrew from the doorway slightly. 'SHUT THE FUCK UP! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M FUCKING BUSY?' Allen threw an arm towards Ash.

'TYRANNOSAURUS!' She screeched again, this time a little more in a nervous manner.

Allen glared at her. 'I'm going to cut you the fuck up, YOU INSANE PIECE OF SHIT! GET THE FUCK OUT!' When the girl didn't move, Allen dashed at her. 'GET THE FUCK OUT!'

This time, the girl did move, sprinting down the outside dimly-lit hallway with Allen in hot pursuit.

That was all Ash could take, he rattled his bonds as hard as he could, flailing his limbs around randomly. Eventually, his right wrist came loose. He ripped the bindings from the rest of his body and rolled off the table, taking cover under it.

Mere seconds later, Allen stumbled back into the room. Ash struggled to contain his gasp.

Allen's fist was drenched in blood, which trailed all around the front of his clothes. Upon seeing the empty table, he let out an animalistic roar and slammed his blood covered fist down onto the table. Ash forced himself to not flinch as the metal ever so slightly caved down in front of him. Allen turned and ran from the room, screaming unintelligible profanities. Once he was gone, Ash slowly pried himself from under the table, looking out past the smashed in door and into dark hallway.

Ash's eyes widened. 'I'm getting the fuck out of here.'


	4. Chapter 3

"Which road do I take?" Alice asked.

His response was a question:  
"Where would you like to go?"

"I don't know.." Alice answered.

"Then," The cat said  
 _"It doesn't matter."_

* * *

Ash had only turned the corner and ran a few meters, but he felt as if he had run a marathon, as if something was sucking the energy out of him. Unwittingly exhausted, Ash slowed to a stop and leant himself against a wall. He was in some sort of cavern, but enough of it was disturbed to suggest that it certainly hasn't been empty for very long. Parts of the natural cave formation were forced out the way, and several wooden planks were erected from ground to ceiling, probably to keep the roof from collapsing in.

An electric whizz that sounded unnervingly close to a power saw rang through the tunnels, followed shortly afterwards by a blood curdling scream.

Ash stumbled from his leaning position, breathing even heavier. "W-what the hell is this place?"

"It matters little, as information won't be of much use to you for very long."

Jumping at the sound of a voice, Ash whizzed round to face a slightly taller female clad in a purple school uniform stood motionless in front of him. Her ragged hair was loosely braided into a pentagram hair clip and her pale skin radiated no signs of warmth. Above all else, Ash couldn't tear his own eyes off the cloudy, lifeless eyes the girl possessed.

"Who.. are you?" Ash shuddered, the girl's chest neither rose nor fell, as if she wasn't breathing.

"I'm.."  
The girl paused for a moment, as if recollecting what she was doing in the first place.  
"..the spirit of a girl who died here." She said at last.

 _What the hell am I supposed to say to that?_ "Uh.. sure.. can you help me?"

"No. No one can. You will die here."

A chill shuddered up Ash's spine. "Why? Why? Just please tell me what's going on!" Ash was about ready to drop to his knees and start begging for the answer, but the girl simply tilted her head sideways, apparently deciding that it was somewhat worth sparing information.

"This is the forgotten depths of an old school, Heavenly Host Elementary."

Ash's eyes widened. "You don't mean.."

"Yes, the school that was demolished in your reality lives on in this one. It is sustained by a curse strong enough to rip open a new dimension for this reality to thrive in."

"A curse..?" Ash considered this, briefly. "You don't expect me to believe that, right?"

"Whether you believe your surroundings or not is irrelevant. Accepting it does not necessarily mean you'll survive, you won't, but understanding the ways of the Darkness is one way to prolong what little lifespan you have left."

"Wait, hold up - Darkness?"

"The curse manifests itself as a sickness that afflicts all who dwell within this dimension. It's symptoms vary from person to person quite a bit."

"How so?" Ash half couldn't believe he was playing along with this.

"Some go mad, some take their own lives, some gain and eventually succumb to an urge to maim others, some all at once. You however.. are affected differently."

"Differently, what's that supposed to mean?"

The dead girl paused for a moment yet again.  
"It is too early to say just yet, but the Darkness works its way into the mind of this dimension's population by absorbing their soul piece by piece until there is an empty husk left for it to assimilate, which is exactly what is happening to you right now,"

Ash felt his gut wrench.

"but, it seems part of your soul is resisting the Darkness, something I've never felt happen before. If your resistant soul succeeds in becoming immune to the Darkness, it could start feeding of its energy."

"And what happens if my soul 'feeds off this energy'?"

"I can't say yet, as I said before, it's too early to tell. And it's certainly not enough to keep you alive."

Ash's eyes hardened "I don't need to be talked down to, how do I get to this school's surface?"

"A ladder exists not far from here." The girl threw an arm to her side, gesturing down a cavern tunnel while keeping her dead eyes locked on Ash. "It will take you to the surface."

"Huh. That's convenient."

"Indeed, without it, it would be very difficult to drag unconscious bodies down here."

Ash looked at the girl blankly before walking past her and continuing for the tunnel.

"One more thing." The girl called, her back facing him, not bothering to turn around. "This reality is made up of several overlapping dimensions of time, it works very differently from your reality."

"So what?" Ash called back.

"Well.." Ash swore he heard a faint giggle. "The friends you came here with are indeed in this reality, but not in this particular dimension. Even if you are all in the same room, you'll never be able to meet."

Ash's heart stopped for a moment.  
"Wait.. that can't be true, I was with one of my… friends.. just earlier!"

This time the girl did turn around. "Hm?"

"I was nearly murdered by them, then they chased off another person.. I think he killed them.."

The girl looked at him as if he was mad, but a slow, understanding smile suddenly spread across her lips.

"What's so funny?" Ash demanded.

"Oh," The girl replied between giggles. "this might be more interesting than I thought."

"Wha-" Ash spoke but didn't finish before the girl utterly vanished before him.  
With an annoyed grunt, Ash spun round and strode quickly down the tunnel to find the ladder.


End file.
